Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 218: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

206 All for Polly. with that love for adventure always lying dormant in a natural boy’s system until some accident calls it into action. Besides, he had a sufficient motive to excuse any ferocity he might feel toward the miserable kid- nappers. Polly had turned out to be the will-o’-the wisp he had chased so long, his own cousin, a Gor- don, of Virginia, bless her sweet face! And family pride, as well as the affection he bore her, demanded that he take a leading part in her speedy rescue. So that he was firmly resolved to let no scruple hinder him from accomplishing this thing, if so be a kindly fortune gave him the opportunity. One thing pleased him mightily. They had by the greatest accident in the world run across Old Sile, plodding along upon an ancient -and weary broncho, bound for the ranch with a mes- sage from his employer down at the Lone Star outfit. Now, Old Sile was invaluable in an affair of this kind, and Mr. Kelly, thankful for the good fortune that sent him their way, immediately saw a chance to give him a good mount, as there was one cow- boy in the band just recovering from a severe an and really not fit for such a campaign. So, to his disgust, he was sent back on the scare- crow beast Old Sile had ridden, while the old ranger threw a leg over the fresh mount. Nothing pleased Sile half so much as a chance for action. He seemed to grow twenty years younger at a jump; his gray eyes twinkled, and that chuckle of his broke forth at intervals as though he considered it a rare piece of good luck to be thus waylaid and forced to join a party of self-appointed Regulators. To destroy ver- min he considered constituted one of the most re- ligious duties of an honest man, and it mattered lit- tle to him whether the destruction fell upon beast, ConniclooOokks.€©